A new report from French-based Pfeiffer Consulting found that XP has a better, more effective interface than Vista. My question is this: Who spiked their Beaujolais?

Mike Neil, GM of Virtualization Strategy at Microsoft wrote up a statement on the Windows Server Division blog which touched on some really interesting points in regards to where Microsoft is heading with virtualization.

Some of the highlights…

When thinking about virtualization, people so commonly just think of virtualization software (e.g. Virtual Server 2005 R2), but as Mike state’s, this is only one small piece of what makes up virtualization as whole.

One of the biggest pushes with virtualization is to make it more manageable overall. What is the point of a technology that is supposed to increase business productivity if it is a management nightmare? Easier management has already come with MOM support, but the big thing on the horizon is System Center Virtual Machine Manager.

Changes in licensing of the VM technology itself are being made in order to achieve maximum interoperability with other operating systems. You have the Open Specifications Promise (OSP) model to thank for this.

Virtualization licensing is really on the ball when it comes to providing an incentive for people to think about switching to a virtualized infrastructure. The move from installation-based licensing to instance-based licensing has really led to a bang in virtualization adoption. Figure up the potential savings yourself by using the Windows OS licensing calculator.

Security is still really not where it needs to be for mass adoption of server virtualization. Work needs to be done to the virtualization layer in order to provide an extra means of data protection. There are talks of doing this through both hardware and software based solutions.

It is really great to see articles like this in regards to the future of virtualization technology. With the level of commitment Microsoft has expressed, it is clear that virtualization is not only here to stay, but that it will eventually become the de facto standard in server and client operating systems to come. Anyone who isn’t using some form of virtualization in their IT strategy will be left behind by those who are.

Read Mike’s full blog posting by clicking here.

Here’s the weekly summary of a mix of Windows Mobile and general mobile tech related items from my personal blog.

Native Windows Mobile Google Maps Application

Google released a Google Maps client for Windows Mobile that installs from a CAB file that can be downloaded and installed directly from Google (no need to sync with a PC). It is also a native application. No Java Midlet needed. This means it is fast and looks good on a Windows Mobile device. I tested it on an old Dell Axim X50v running Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. As you can see from the screen cap, the satellite image view looks nice and clear on its screen and the menu looks like most other native applications.

You can download it directly to your device from: http://google.com/gmm/

The application can also show a traditional looking street map, locations of businesses, real-time traffic for certain cities, and driving directions. I’m very impressed by what I’ve seen. I hope we see more native Windows Mobile apps from Google in the future.

PSA: Windows Mobile Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update
On the odd chance that you don’t read the many other (and better known) sites and blogs that discuss Windows Mobile devices (ok, you may stop laughing and rolling around now), I thought I’d do my bit and offer this public service announcement. Last year the U.S. Congress decided to change the start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time in the US. This, of course, is causing all kinds of cyber hand wringing (for good reason I should add). Fortunately for we Windows Mobile users, Microsoft provides detailed instructions for dealing with this on a Pocket PC/Phone Edition or Smartphone. You can find the page linked below…
Daylight Saving Time 2007 Update

A Use for Those Old 802.11b WiFi Access Points
If you are like me, you probably have your old (and slow) 802.11b Access Point lying around somewhere.

If you have a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP portable gaming console, you might want to dust off the old 802.11b WAP and put it to use. Neither the DS nor the PSP support WPA encryption. So, you probably can’t use it with the 802.11g WAP you use for your notebook. They do, however, support WEP. So, you can dust off your WAP, put it on a different LAN segment (something like IPcop might do the trick) and use it exclusively for portable gaming net access.

More ActiveSync 4.5 Annoyances

More ranting and grumblings from this blog. Sorry ’bout that.

When you install ActiveSync 4.5, it deletes all your existing Windows Mobile device partnerships. But, wait, that’s not all. If you previously synced wirelessly using Bluetooth (Microsoft removed the option to sync via WiFi way back in AS40), you have to rebuild that set of connection settings too.

This means you need to verify which serial port the Bluetooth adapter on your PC is using (COM4 in my case), set it, set the desktop BT to discoverable, then head back to your Pocket PC to BT pair with the desktop (or notebook). You should probably delete your old BT pairing setting before setting up the Pocket PC.

Copying Your Outlook Data from One PC to Another

I upgraded one of my PCs from Windows XP Media Center Edition to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition last month. However, that PC was not my main PC (the one I sync my Windows Mobile devices to). If you go back through this blog, you’ll find that I did sacrifice a WM Smartphone to sync with the Vista box to test Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC). So, how did I get the data over to the Vista box for testing? I just copied the files over. There are a number of ways to find where your Outlook.pst and other Outlook files are stored. Here’s how I do it (since I can never remember where it is from one time to another).

• Start Outlook 2003
  
• Click on File, then Open, the Outlook Data File.
  
• Click on the pull-down menu at the top left
  
• Note the path for your Outlook files
  
• Exit Outlook
  
• Copy the files to a thumb drive or some other sufficiently large
  storage device. If you use Outlook for email (I don’t), it may be large. If you don’t use it for email, it will probably fit on a small thumb drive. My Outlook.pst is just a bit over 5MB large. And, I turned off archiving.
  
• Make sure Outlook 2003 (or 2007) on the Windows Vista PC is activated and ready to go.
  

I took my Outlook 2003 Outlook.pst file and plopped it in the Outlook 2007 folder on my Windows Vista PC. This migration process seemed to work fine for me. Your mileage may vary.

MyCalculator: Free Calculator for Pocket PCs
Each time I look at the calculator Microsoft provides on the Pocket PC or Smartphone, I am amazed at the fact that they have not improved it one bit in over a decade. The Pocket PC is a natural form factor for a great calculator. Fortunately, there are a number of freeware solutions available. Here’s one you might want to take a look at…

MyCalculator

There are versions for Windows Mobile, Windows, and Palm OS.

Trying to get a reality check here. Does anyone visit Microsoft’s MSDN site http://msdn.microsoft.com/ which, for me, redirects to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx? It took about a half hour for what you see here to render with rendering errors. I’ve tried it from five PCs running four Windows versions (XP Home, XP Pro, Media Edition, and Vista Ultimate Edition) in two locations (home and office) using two different ISPs with the same results. Other Microsoft sites (e.g., Port 25, CodePlex, Technet) come up quickly and without rendering issues. I figured I should gather more data before trying to contact Microsoft. So, anyone else seeing this problem when trying to browse the MSDN web site? Thanks for any feedback or explanation you might have.

In a recent entry posted to the IronPython mailing list, Dino Viehland writes,

Here’s my weekly summary of Freeware, Open Source, and free web services mentioned in my personal blog last week.

OpenVPN GUI for Windows
While we patiently wait for the GRC/Security Now’s Steve Gibson to provide us with the definitive OpenVPN how-to that he mentioned on a Security Now podcast back in late 2005(and, hey, he’s doing this for free, so let’s cut him some slack :-)… If you are a Windows user, you might want to take a look at…

OpenVPN GUI for Windows

Its website description reads: OpenVPN is normally run in a console window, which can be a little annoying to have lying on the taskbar all the time.

Notepad++ 4.01
I use the Open Source Notepad++ editor a lot. So, I was happy to note that version 4.0 was released on January 28 followed by 4.0.1 on February 3.

Notepad++ 4.01

I tend to use Notepad++ for a lot of little editing jobs since it it launches so fast. My one wishlist item is that it would nice it if it allowed dragging and dropping text files from Windows Explorer in Windows Vista.

DotNetNuke 4.4.1
Here’s something a little different… An Open Source web content management system for Windows Server.

DotNetNuke 4.4.1

This updated version was released just last month.

My recollection is that I’ve seen a number of city and county sites using this web framework software.

InkScape 0.45
The Open Source multiplatform InkScape 0.45 vector graphics drawing application was updated on February 5. Some of the new features described on InkScape site are: Most notably is the new Gaussian Blur feature, which allow softly and naturally blurring Inkscape objects like path, shapes, groups, text, and images. Gaussian blur enables a wide range of photorealistic effects: arbitrarily shaped shades and lights, depth of field, drop shadows, glows, etc. Also, blurred objects can be used as masks for other objects to achieve the “feathered mask” effect.

Democracy Internet TV


The multiplatform Open Source Democracy Internet TV version 0.95 was just released. The first quick gotcha (if you are on Windows) is that the Windows Firewall intercepts its outgoing network request (presumably for updates and torrent files) and errors out the first time around. If you squint, you can probably see the Python trackback error messages in the screen cap here. Subsequent starts errored twice before the player started up.

NASA World Wind 1.4 Released (mapping software)
The Open Source but Windows-only…

NASA World Wind 1.4

…was released on Valentine’s Day. It is described as World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data. You can also find the official support site wiki at…

World Wind Wiki

World Wind depends on both Microsoft’s .NET and DirectX which explains why it has not be ported to Mac OS X or Linux.

PC Tools is touting a new study that claims Windows Defender can’t detect nearly half the spyware threats it encounters. But the company glosses over two facts: The study was in fact paid for by PC Tools; and a beta version of Windows Defender was tested, not the final version.

Here’s the weekly summary of a mix of Windows Mobile and general mobile tech related items from my personal blog.

Microsoft Changes Windows Mobile Naming Scheme (again)
Along with introducing Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft is once again changing the device naming scheme. The new device type names along with what we call them now are:

* Standard Edition == Smartphone
* Classic Edition == Pocket PC
* Professional Edition == Pocket PC Phone Edition

To make things even more interesting, the Standard Edition (Smartphone) includes a read-only (no editing) version of Office Mobile. Does all this really help differentiate the different Windows Mobile device types for the non-techie consumer (i.e., the vast majority of people buying these things)? I think not. My guess is that a common scene that will play out again and again are executives asking IT why they were given the obviously inferior Standard Edition instead of Professional Edition based solely on the naming scheme. This doesn’t help anyone and, in fact, may confuse even more people. Microsoft should have just renamed the phone-less Pocket PC to Pocket PC Standard Edition and left the other two names alone.

Microsoft .NET Micro Framework
So, we’ve got .NET Framework for PCs, .NET Compact Framework for Windows Mobile, and, now, .NET Micro Framework for MSN Direct and other embedded systems. It appears that this category also includes Windows Vista SideShow devices. Here’s a bunch of links to help you sort out the information. First up is the press release…

Microsoft .NET Micro Framework Is Now Available

Next is the frameworks website…

Microsoft .net Micro Framework

And, finally, a brief video (WMV format) providing examples of the types of devices that might run .net Micro Framework…

.NET Micro Framework demo video

MSDN: What’s New for Developers in Windows Mobile 6
The Microsoft Developer Network(MSDN) has a new overview page for developers interesting in creating Windows Mobile 6 applications. You can find it at…

What’s New for Developers in Windows Mobile 6

The page has a broken link to the Windows Mobile Wiki. I found it and have it linked correctly below.

Channel 9 Windows Mobile Wiki

Live Search for Windows Mobile and Live Search for Java
Microsoft announced and made available Live Search for Windows Mobile and Live Search for Java over the weekend. Unlike most Live services, this Live Search requires installing client software. The other interesting aspect is that versions for both Windows Mobile and Java based mobile devices (such as Nokia smartphones) were made available.

You can either download the software to your desktop (for later installation on your phone) at…

http://mobile.search.live.com/

…or download it directly to your phone by visiting…

http://wls.live.com/

This service includes live traffic information for 25 U.S. cities. Maps and driving directions are available for other locations.

Hotmail Push Email for Windows Mobile 6
So, this push-email (made popular by the RIMM Blackberry) is all good and well. But, you are a Windows Mobile device user and do NOT use an Exchange Server for your email. So, big deal. Right?

Well, it turns out that push-email can be had with the free Hotmail service from Microsoft and the upcoming Windows Mobile 6 devices. Here’s a link to an article on the MSDN Blogs that describes how to set up a free push-email service.

Push Email with Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Mobile 6.0

ActiveSync 4.5 Ate my Device Partnerships!
Although I have a PC setup running Windows Vista Ultimate Edition and the new Windows Mobile Device Center (ActiveSync replacement), my main PC that syncs with most of my Windows Mobile devices runs Windows XP Media Center. Since…

Microsoft ActiveSync 4.5

…was released for those of us still syncing Pocket PCs and Smartphones with XP, I decided to upgrade from 4.2 to 4.5 today. No problem right? Simple upgrade, right? Wrong…

The upgrade process itself went smoothly. However, when I brought up ActiveSync 4.5 (without any WM device attached to the PC), I noticed it had lost all of its device partnerships! This meant that I had to re-partner every device. The pre-Windows Mobile 5 devices partnered quickly as usual. However, because Windows Mobile 5 devices keep their PIM data in slow non-volatile RAM, the partnership for WM5 boxes took forever. I’m talking what seemed like 5 to 10 minutes per device.

The Windows Mobile platform is over 10 years old now. This sort of problem should have stopped happening during the last century. ActiveSync continues to be a user-hostile application and continues to earn its nickname of ActiveStink. Let’s hope its successor, WMDC, doesn’t earn its own pejorative nickname.

… and on that day there shall be *MUCH* joy!

(More to follow as I unravel the mysteries of my new found toy joy!)

Oh, and to Melissa Richards, Michael K. Johnson, and the entire rPath crew, as well as Tony Bailey, and the rest of the Microsoft Windows Server Virtualization team…

YOU ALL PHREAKIN’ ROCK! :D

As mentioned, more to follow as I begin to start hacking together utilities, tools, and other fun stuff that relates to both the Zune and rPath/VHD-based appliance (the next nuXleus release is slated to take place tomorrow) integration.

More when there’s more to report! :D

Here’s my weekly summary of Freeware, Open Source, and free web services mentioned in my personal blog last week.

SoftPerfect File Recovery
SoftPerfect File Recovery is a freeware Windows utility that does pretty much what its name implies. It can recover deleted files even if they are not in the recycle bin.

It documentation says it supports both FAT-type and NTFS partition types. It is also supposed to be work ok with Windows Vista (I haven’t tried it with Vista).

Email Notes to OneNote via Outlook 2007 (Add-in)
Ok, this isn’t open source is the true sense. But, the source code is apparently freely available, so I’ll categorize as FOSS.

Here’s how its developer describes it: This addin adds the capability of sending yourself email with a certain keyword in the subject and having Outlook automatically create a new page in OneNote’s Unfiled Notes section when that mail item arrives. Outlook then deletes the email. It also allows power users to set the filter used for incoming mail items to trigger the code. It provides no UI for the user: “it just works.”

FlightGear Flight Simulator
Here’s a very nice looking (based on the screenshots) Open Source multiplatform flight simulator app…

FlightGear Flight Simulator

Here’s a link to the Free Software Magazine’s review of it.

Microsoft SysInternals ZoomIt

When Microsoft bought WinInternals (SysInternals), it got one of the more prolific creators of freeware Windows utilities. Here’s one that Mark Russinovich updated last month. He describes it as: is [a] screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demons.

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes launched yesterday (Feb. 8). It caused such a rush that the service went offline for a few hours and is still a bit flaky even a day later. Pipes lets you consume feed data from any site and then use simple logic or combinations of feeds to product a custom result. The programming is created using an easy to use drag and drop graphical interface. The example shown here is my first attempt. It takes the feed from O’Reilly’s Inside Port 25 site where Matt Asay and I write blogs related to Microsoft and the Open Source world. It then checks through the feed and pulls out just the blog items I wrote. A simple change could reverse it by just grabbing Matt’s blog items.

Microsoft likes to point out the fact that its firewall in Windows Vista is superior to the one in XP because it includes outbound as well as inbound filtering. What it forgets to say, however, is that the outbound filtering is turned off, and pretty much impossible to configure to kill spyware.

I’ve received quite a few comments to recent posts whining about how hard it is to keep up with Microsoft’s onslaught of developer technology (.net 2, 3, AJAX, etc.). While I’m not in the business of defending Microsoft, I do think they can’t win: if they were not innovating they’d be accused of sitting on their “monopoly” being in need of competition to force them to create new technology….

Here’s the weekly summary of a mix of Windows Mobile and general mobile tech related items from my personal blog.

Use Bluetooth with ActiveSync instead of USB
Microsoft took away ActiveSync over the network (wired and wireless) a few versions ago and did not give it back with Windows Mobile Device Center. But, the sometimes flaky USB connection is not your only alternative.

My K-JAM Pocket PC Phone Edition, for example, syncs on the first attempt over USB. But, it somehow corrupts ActiveSync on the desktop for subsequent syncs unless I reboot my PC (and, yes, I’ve tried terminating and restarting the ActiveSync service). None of my other Windows Mobile devices causes this problem. Just the K-JAM. My solution has been sync the K-JAM using Bluetooth exclusively. This does not corrupt ActiveSync for subsequent sync sessions. The only downside is that I need to initiate ActiveSync from the K-JAM.

The GeekZone has detailed information on setting this up….

Bluetooth ActiveSync Guide for Windows XP Service Pack 2

If you have ActiveSync Bluetooth issues, take a look at this Microsoft Bluetooth FAQ…

Frequently asked questions about Microsoft Bluetooth-enabled devices

Windows Vista Windows Mobile Device Center Illustrated Tour

I installed Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) 1.0 on a PC running Windows Vista Ultimate Edition. You can find an illustrated guide through the WMDC partnership creation process at…

Illustrated WMDC Partnership Creation

Couple of quick notes before you click on the link above…

Installing WMDC took a very long time… Many minutes. I have no idea why this process took so long. Other applications have not taken very long to install under Windows Vista. To make matters worse, the installation process instructed me to reboot after it completed. ActiveSync (such as it is) did not require a reboot after installation.

The process of partnering (see Step 4 in the illustrated guide) also took a long long time (many minutes). This is not too unusual for Windows Mobile 5 devices. But, I was synching with a Windows Mobile 2003 device which normally does not take as long to create a partnership.

The menus have a kind of hybrid Xbox/Vista look. Lots of white space (or green space as the case may be). I would prefer a set of legacy pull-down menu lists going across the top or a ribbon navigator like Office 2007 apps. It would be much faster to navigate.

The decision to go with a Xbox-y consumerish WMDC design doesn’t make sense since Microsoft is aiming their Windows Mobile device at the Enterprise (vs. the Apple iPhone consumer market).

That said, the process was reasonably smooth (though very slow). I did, however, get a bunch of duplicate recurring events in my calendar. WMDC did not ask how it wanted me to handle events in the Outlook 2007 calendar in relation to the existing items in the Smartphone’s calendar. I also see a small number of duplicated contacts in my Contacts list.

Windows Mobile Calendar Events That Don’t Stick
What do you consider to be your master calendar? Your PDA or your desktop calendar? For many of us, the answer is clearly our PDA (or phone). It is always with us and the most likely thing to be updated first. But, for many of us this rule more a 95/5 rule rather than a 100/0 rule. If you use a Windows Mobile Smartphone or Pocket PC, watch out for this gotcha…

I sometimes create an event using Microsoft Outlook on my desktop. This usually happens for an event with a lot of information that I’m copying and pasting from email or a vCal file. Sounds reasonable, right? But, what do you think happened in the following situation?

1. I created an appointment for the next day in Outlook on my desktop
   
2. I synced my Windows Mobile Smartphone with the desktop
   
3. The appointment is now on the Smartphone
   
4. Early the next morning I was told that the meeting was postponed until tomorrow
   
5. I changed the date for the event to the next day and checked to make sure the change was visible on the Smartphone
   
6. The Smartphone was then synced to the same desktop with Outlook again.
   

What do you think happened? If you guessed that the desktop Outlook appointment setting took precedent over my Smartphone and changed the event on the Smartphone back to the now wrong day, you guessed correctly. Try this yourself. I can reproduce this on various generations of Windows Mobile devices.

The moral is that you might think that your Pocket PC or Smartphone is your master calendar. But, ActiveSync has other ideas. Changes made to a calendar appointment on a Windows Mobile device only sticks after ActiveSync if the event was originally created on the device. It unsticks and reverts to the original date/time if the event was created using Outlook. Yuck.

Windows Mobile 6?

The wraps are off of Windows Mobile 6 (WM6). Other sites will give it much fuller coverage than I will. So, I won’t focus on new features. If you want to read about that and see more screenshots, take a look at some of the items on the Pocket PC Thoughts site as well as many other great sites that focus on Windows Mobile. ModernNomads, for example, has a detailed WM6 description for you to read in the article What will Windows Mobile 6 bring for the highly mobile people?
My limited experience with WM6 left me lukewarm. I suspect it is because I am not a Microsoft Exchange Server user. From a non-enterprise user perspective, WM6 will probably seem like Windows Mobile 5 Second Edition: Nice little enhancements, a smattering of new features in the mail and PIM areas, and a slightly different start page look.

With WM6 devices set to roll out after the Apple iPhone, WM6 may look like less of an upgrade by the time devices get past the FCC, through the carriers’ test cycles, and actually are available for purchase by consumers and businesses. Businesses, especially those using Exchange Server, will definitely prefer a Windows Mobile 6 device to the Apple iPhone. They won’t be limited to a single carrier (only Cingular will carry the iPhone), be able to add custom applications, have a wide-base of third-party applications to choose from, and have reasonably well documented practices to manage the devices in an enterprise setting.

But for consumers? That will be interesting. Although we’ve heard howls of protest at the iPhone’s $499 and $599 price points, consider this… The Cingular 8525 and Palm Treo 750 (both touch screen Windows Mobile 5 devices) cost $399.99 (after subsidizing is figured in). That is not much less than the lower-end iPhone. And, neither one has 4GB of storage like the low-end iPhone.

SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Developer SDK
Microsoft released…

SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Developer SDK

…about a month ago. The kit includes a CAB file to install SQL Server 2005 Compact on Pocket PCs and Smartphones running Windows Mobile 2003 and newer.

You can find a Microsoft document about upgrading from SQL Server CE 2.0 to SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition at…

Upgrading from SQL Server CE 2.0 to SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition

Zune Phone? A Blog Dialog with Frank McPherson
My old friend and author of How to Do Everything with Windows Mobile, Frank McPherson, has an interesting take on the much rumored Zune Phone on his blog: What’s With the Zune Phone? It is kind of amusing that Frank and I may have arrived at a similar conclusion but are taking different paths to get there. So, I’ll pick out what I see as his main points and discuss them one by one. BTW, I’m not saying I am right and Frank is wrong. It is just a different point of view. So, here we go. I’ll highlight Frank’s points in italics.

• The Zune Phone is not a reaction to the iPhone. It is an internal competition with Windows Mobile devices. I think the Zune itself is a reaction to the iPod (and the failure of the various WMA/MP3 players to challenge the iPod). The Zune Phone (if it exists) is not so much a reaction to the iPhone as announced at MacWorld but the rumor of the iPhone before it was announced. It takes a long time to design a phone, get it through the FCC, and strike a deal with a carrier. If a Zune Phone is announced soon, it was in the works many months before the iPhone was announced. Quite honestly, I don’t think the Zune group cares about anything produced by other Microsoft groups. The Zune group looks a like a rogue group to we outsiders. They didn’t support Plays for Sure. They don’t appear to work with Vista’s Windows Mobile Device Center. They don’t appear to have anything to do with the very similar Portable Media Center devices.
  
• The Windows Mobile secret weapon is Voice Command for the Pocket PC Phone Edition and Smartphone. Voice recognition (not full continuous speech recognition) is pretty cool indeed. And Microsoft Voice Command is also pretty cool. But, there is one problem… Even though voice command/voice dialing is available on many many phones, and has been for years, hardly anyone uses it. When was the last time you saw/heard any of the thousands of people you’ve seen using a phone use voice dialing? Generally speaking, most people don’t bother to check if their phone can do it. If it can, it is often a pain to set it up. And, if you set it up, it generally only works in a relatively quiet environment (even with a headset on). And, if you are running down a street, your voice sounds different enough to it that voice dialing usually doesn’t work. Even handwriting recognition has essentially lost the race. That is why most popular devices now have a thumb QWERTY keyboard. Voice and handwriting recognition is a lot harder than most of us think. And, neither one has reached the point where they are truly useful on small somewhat underpowered mobile device.
  
• Microsoft doesn’t need to create a Zune Phone. It just needs to improve Windows Mobile. I agree with Frank completely. But, it not only won’t happen, it has actually lost functions with each new version. Check out my earlier blog item: Windows Mobile Loses Features With Each Upgrade??? Microsoft is only responding to carrier and enterprise customer feature requests. And, that is, in fact, why I think the Zune group will create a consumer focused Zune Phone that needs to answer to carrier needs but not enterprise needs. As an aside, try this experiment if you have both an iPod and some Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone: Close your eyes. Then, take the iPod and navigate through various features such as volume control or going through a playlist (forward, backwards, pause, restart). Now, try the same thing with whatever Windows Mobile device using only one hand and, again, not looking. Pretty difficult, if not impossible, right? BTW, try creating a playlist on the Windows Mobile device? If your device is within two generations old, it is impossible. This feature was removed a while back. Now, try creating a playlist on your desktop/notebook and get it to your WM device. Cough cough. Done yet? Try it on your iPod using iTunes. Windows Mobile lost the race as a media device long ago. And, removing features didn’t help it over the past couple of upgrades.
  

It should be interesting to see if the Zune Phone arrives. Here are a couple of predictions (and I’m pretty bad at predictions, so don’t put much weight on what I say. This is just for fun :-) :

1. It will be sold exclusively through Verizon Wireless. It wouldn’t make sense to give AT&T Wireless (Cingular) the exclusive and compete head-to-head with the iPhone in the same retail store. It may be available as a GSM phone outside of the US.
   
2. Like the iPhone it will not allow 3rd party applications to be installed.
   
3. It will have basic email, sms, and PIM functions (like most phones these days) but will not sync with Outlook. It may have its own little desktop PIM for Vista-only.
   
4. It may have some VoIP features. Perhaps through a Live Messenger interface.
   
5. There will be a horrid looking brown colored version :-)
   
6. I will stick with Windows Mobile based devices and not buy a Zune Phone :-)
   

I recently referred to Andy Updegrove’s report on the responses. In the past few days, media reports and blog commentaries (too numerous to cite here) have speculated on the significance of the number of responses. Now, Rob Weir has blogged on an important point that many are overlooking. Here is an excerpt:

If it’s Thursday, it must be Freeware and Open Source for Windows day. Here’s a summary of Freeware/FOSS I mentioned in my personal blog last week…

Firefox/Thunderbird Not Auto-Upgrading in Windows Vista
It looks like the auto-update feature in Mozilla’s Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client is not working properly when installed in Microsoft Windows Vista. The download appears to start and complete as expected. However, the upgrade process itself fails. Firefox or Thunderbird will then download another upgrade copy and re-attempt to upgrade with the same failure. I have not seen this problem under Mac OS X or Linux.

The solution is to download a fresh copy of Firefox or Thunderbird and run the installer manually.

Krut Computer Recorder 0.9.2
This Open Source project can record audio and video from your computer and save the data MOV or WAV (WMV?) files.

Krut Computer Recorder

Binary versions are available for Linux and Microsoft Windows. I’ll guess (though I have not tried yet) that this Java-based product can also run with Mac OS X. The latest version was released on January 17, 2007.

VMware Converter 3.0
VMware announced the availability of the free…

VMware Converter 3.0

It is a P2V (Physical to Virtual) converter. This means it can migrate a Microsoft Windows (it only works with Windows) installation on a physical computer and migrate it to a virtual machine that can be used by the various VMware virtualization applications. It can also perform a images in the Microsoft Virtual PC/Virtual Server virtual disk format or a Symantec (Norton) Ghost format and migrate it to a VMware virtual image.

Ascii Generator dotNET: ASCII Art Generator
Listen up you young whipper snappers! In the old days before we had high resolution color printers, people used to combine plain ol’ black ASCII characters to create amazing photo-like images without using rendered graphics. If you want to relive the fun of those glory days without the tedium and the deafening sound of impact printers printing out one of these things, take a look at this Open Source product for Windows…

Ascii Generator dotNET

putty 0.59 Secure Shell Terminal Emulator
I’m often sitting in front of a Windows based PC when I need to work on a Linux server or Mac OS X workstation. If all you need is a terminal emulator for command line access, you should definitely have a copy of the Open Source…

putty Telnet/SSH Client

…for Microsoft Windows. I recommend using SSH (the first S is for secure) instead of Telnet whenever possible (and that is usually always if port 22 is available) to access remote servers or workstations. Version 0.59 was just released. There is no installation. Just copy the EXE binary file and double click on it to launch it.

Skype 3.0 for Windows
The latest Skype for Windows version was just released today (Jan. 31)…

Skype 3.0.0.214 for Windows

I don’t see any new features listed. I suspect we’ll see something in the Skype Blog tomorrow.

The requirements section only mentions compatibility with Windows 2000 and XP. Guess I should test it on a Vista PC.

K-3D: 3D Modeling, Animation, and Rendering System
The Open Source…

K-3D: 3D Modeling, Animation, and Rendering System

…has ready-to-run Windows binaries, source code for Linux, and a Mac OS X being worked on.

The latest stable and development versions were just released last month (January).

If you’re wondering how it compares to Blender, take a look at the K-3D FAQ on the subject.

OpenXML Translator 1.0 (ODF Add-in for Word)
February 2 saw the 1.0 release of the…

OpenXML Translator (ODF Add-in for Word)

This add-on gives Microsoft Word the ability to write documents in the Open Document Format (ODF). Take note of the requirements listed on the download page before attempting to install this add-on. The .NET Framework 2.0 is required for Word XP, Word 2003, and Word 2007. Word XP and 2003 additionally requires the…

Programmer’s Notepad
The Programmer’s Notepad is an Open Source text editor that runs on Windows. It is based on the Scintilla editng engine.

It has a similar look and feel to other Scintilla based text editors. One nice feature is a set of predefined text clips for ASP.Net, C, DocBook, HTML/XHTML, and PHP. There appears to be a way to create your own text clips. But, that documentation stub has not been completed in the help file.

Andy Updegrove reported on 6 February that “…an unprecedented nineteen countries have responded during the contradictions phase — most or all lodging formal contradictions with Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1), the ISO/IEC body that is managing the Fast Track process under which OOXML (now Ecma 476) has been submitted.” The article lists the countries (the US is conspicuously missing) and describes the next step in the process.

See also my earlier post, Groklaw Team Exposes Serious Flaws in Microsoft’s OOXML Specification.

On 1 February, Peter Korn reported:
“The OASIS ballot for OpenDocument v1.1 has closed, and without a single dissenting vote, OpenDocument v1.1 has been approved as an OASIS Standard. This is another affirmation of the increasing participation of the disability community in developing technology standards… OpenDocument v1.1 is primarily the work of the disability community and experts in disability technology…”

For those interested in the changes:

Three plugins for converting between Microsoft Word (.DOC) and OpenDocument Text (.ODT) file formats have been announced in the last two weeks: daVinci (OpenDocument Foundation), Open XML Translator (Microsoft), and Conversion Technology Preview (Sun Microsystems). Here’s a quick summary; see also Andy Updegrove’s article And Now There are Two: Sun Announces its ODF Plug-in.

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Home Server will most likely be a runaway success — it solves a problem that tens of milllions of households have. Statistics Microsoft cites on the Home Server blog back that up — and the numbers are even bigger than I imagined.

Here’s the weekly summary of a mix of Windows Mobile and general mobile tech related items from my personal blog.

Ready for Windows Vista for Windows Mobile?
Microsoft Windows Vista is finally available for anyone to purchase/upgrade. Are you ready to sync your Pocket PC or Smartphone with Vista? Here’s some references for you to check out if you’re planning to use Vista with your Windows Mobile device.

Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center

Couple of important notes from this page. First, if your device pre-dates Windows Mobile 2003, you can’t sync it with Vista and WMDC. Second, the oldest version of Outlook supported is XP (2002). I’ve seen some sites say Outlook 2000 is supported. But, that is not indicated on Microsoft’s WMDC page. Third WMDC appears to still be in a beta-release stage.

Synchronizing with Vista -Windows Mobile Device Center FAQ

The site above is maintained by fellow Mobile Devices MVP Chris De Herrera.

Troubleshooting Vista Windows Mobile Device Center

Finally, the blog entry linked above is by Microsoft’s own Mr. Mobile Jason Langridge.

Happy Vista-ing, folks!

EV-DO applicability in Japan?
Reader J.V. asks: Would a BlackBerry with Ev-DO technology (such as the 7703e) be usable in Japan? Would a BlackBerrys on GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks be usable in Japan?

Most of the world does not use CDMA/EVDO. Most of the world tends to be GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo invented W-CDMA used by both FOMA used in Japan and UMTS used in a lot of places (except for most of the US where we tend to lag behind in the wireless world).

I took a look at taking my GSM/GPRS phone with me when I visited Japan back in 2005. I ended up leaving it behind. In speaking with people who visit Japan regularly, it seems that they tend to buy a phone with rechargeable SIMs (fixed number of minutes). If you read the article I wrote about my trip for O’Reilly’s MacDevCenter…
Japan Primer for the Mac Techno-Tourist

…you’ll find a section sub-titled Mobile Phones, Broadband, & Wi-Fi Hotspots that provides links to sites that discussing phone roaming options.

Windows CE vs. Windows Mobile
Reader Z.M. asks: Two products I have seen, the Cisco/Linksys WIP330, and the Y5 World handset use Windows CE/Mobile for the OS and browser, but they do not have the full UI suite you see on Windows Mobile mobile phones. They both use what looks like the same 3rd-party UI kit for a telephony UI. I was wondering if you know who makes this software?
Microsoft provides the base platform for Windows CE that is used in embedded devices such as the ones you mention (and many more). This base platform is then molded and enhanced by independent developers to create products like the ones you mention. This is a large number of embedded systems developers working to develop these kinds of products.
Windows CE is also the underlying platform for Windows Mobile devices: Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Smartphone. The Windows Mobile Shell, Office, and other teams add on the features you see on Pocket PCs and Smartphones based on Windows Mobile.

Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center is Available
Microsoft released the production versions of Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) for Windows Vista on January 31. WMDC replaces ActiveSync for Vista users. There are two versions available…
Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Driver for Windows Vista (x86)

Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center Driver for Windows Vista (AMD64)

Please note that you must check which version of Windows Vista you are using. I suspect that many people with AMD Athlon 64 based PCs (like me) are running the 32-bit version of Vista for driver compatibility. So, just having an Athlon-64 CPU does not mean you should download and try to install the AMD64 version of WMDC.

Windows Mobile Device Center Site

In my previous blog entry, I pointed out the two download links for the 32-bit and 64-bit veresions of the Vista replacement for ActiveSync. Here’s a link to its home web site…

Windows Mobile Device Center
It’s interesting that the full name for the software is Windows Mobile Device Center 6. Something to match up with an unreleased Windows Mobile 6, perhaps (we are currently at Windows Mobile 5 release)?

There’s a link to a WMDC troubleshooting page. One interesting note on this page is that while pre-WM2003 devices are not supported as partnered devices, you can still browse the ancient device and copy files.

I haven’t installed WMDC on my Vista PC yet. But, you can read what I have learned from installing Windows Vista Ultimate Edition on a cheap ($500) PC on another personal blog of mine: TO-Tech.com/blog.

InformationWeek’s Smartphone OS Roadmap

Information Week has a useful…

Road Map For Smartphone Operating Systems

…on their website. Anyone interested in trying to get a quick grasp of where the major mobile device OSes will be in the near future would find the table on their web site interesting. The table provides an overview of the near-future guess-timates for Symbian, Linux, Garnet OS (formerly Palm OS), Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Mac OS X (Apple iPhone).

Here’s a summary of Freeware/FOSS (Free & Open Source Software) for Windows I mentioned in my personal blog last week…

Use Microsoft Office 2007 Files with Older Office Versions
Microsoft Office 2007 is available now! Be prepared to say goodbye to the good ol’ three letter filename extensions : DOC, XLS, PPT. And, welcome in the new four letter file name extensions: DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX (among other extensions).

So, what happens if you aren’t upgrading your Office version and receive one of these new file types? If you are using Office 2000, XP (2002), or 2003, you may want to take a look at the free…

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

Gliffy: Web Diagramming Tool
I mentioned the Dia (Open Source) diagramming tool for Linux and Windows a few days ago. But, if you use a Mac or don’t want to install anything, take a look at…

Gliffy

It is a free web diagram creation service that also allows you to share the diagrams you create. It can also save the diagrams in the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file format. You can import this file into numerous client-side diagramming tools.

allSnap: Align Top Level Windows Automatically
I haven’t tried this myself. But, I heard Steve Gibson rave about this on the Security Now! podcast. So, I thought I’d mention this utility here…

allSnap

Its author describes it as a small system tray app that makes all top level windows automatically align like they do in programs such as Winamp or Photoshop.

I suspect it is something that either immediately strikes you as a must-have or a uninstall-this kind of thing. Let me know how you like it.

Microsoft PowerShell: Bye Bye DOS Box
Bit of cross-pollination here… I was planning to blog a bit here about Microosft’s PowerShell in the near future. But, when I saw Microsoft Open Source Labs’ Bill Hilf discuss, I decided to give my own opinions on the topic over at O’Reilly Media’s Inside Port 25 site. You can find my commentary there linked below…

Microsoft PowerShell

As an old C-Shell and, now, Bash Shell user as well as one who often writes quick utilities in Ruby (used to use Python a lot before switching to Ruby), I’ve been watching what was called Monad develop into PowerShell. It combines the power of the UNIX/Linux shells many of us grew up on with the scripting power we found in dynamic languages like Perl, Python, and Ruby.

Zoho Office Suite
Hey, has anyone tried this?

Zoho Office Suite

It is a free web-based office suite that includes the following web-based applications: word processor, spreadsheet, slide presenter, wiki, collaborative groupware (calendar, etc.).

The Zoho API exposes its features to those who want to work with Zoho data in their own apps.